Your Guide to Visiting Tamul Waterfall in Mexico

Last updated on June 26, 2025

Tamul Waterfall outside of San Luis Potosí, Mexico is one of Mexico’s most stunning waterfalls. As the tallest waterfall in the region, it’s surprising to hear it’s not a super popular destination for tourists. In fact, our tour guide to Tamul Waterfall told us it had been 5 years since he had visitors from the United States! 😳

The area of Huasteca Potosina where Tamul Waterfall and many others are located is a nature lovers’ paradise. While it’s somewhat challenging to reach, la Cascada de Tamul is 100% worth visiting.

Play

If you want to discover the magic of this region, here is everything you need to know about visiting Tamul Waterfall in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Getting to Tamul Waterfall

Most people visiting Tamul Waterfall will stay in Ciudad Valles in San Luis Potosí. It’s the closest town to the waterfalls and is a fairly large city with plenty of hotels, restaurants, and other amenities for your stay. It’s also where most tour groups are based making it easy to meet your guide for transportation to and from the waterfall.

Explore accommodation options in Ciudad Valles below.

The easiest way to get to Ciudad Valles is to catch a flight to the coastal town of Tampico. Pick up a rental car at the airport then drive 2 and a half hours down Highway 70 until you reach Ciudad Valles. Tampico is a super-well-connected international airport that’s nice and new.

We drove over 10,000 miles in Mexico and the drive from Tampico is a straight shot on a newly paved toll road (so nice).

➡ Read Next: Everything You Need to Know About Driving in Mexico ⬅

What to bring on a Tamul Waterfall trip

Here are a few of the items you should bring with you for your Tamul Waterfall trip. Of course, have pesos on hand to tip your guide at the end of the tour (10% is customary). You’ll also want pesos to get food out. There’s awesome street food in Ciudad Valles, but most are effectivo (cash) only.

💳 We also recommend having a travel credit card that doesn’t charge international fees. You’ll likely be able to pay for your tour to Tamul Waterfall with a credit card, like this Capital One Venture X card. This way you can earn points for future travel without racking up fees. If you want to see our top travel card recommendations right now, click here.

➡ Read Next: The 27 Best Tips for Traveling to Mexico (From an Insider) ⬅

Swimsuit – Swimming in most waterfalls is allowed so make sure to bring your bathing suit. We love Andie Swim’s eco swimsuit line which uses recycled plastic for their form-fitting suits.

Quick Dry Towel – There are plenty of high-quality, fast-drying towels on the market right now, so there is no reason to pack in bulky ones that take up unnecessary space. Our favorites are from Teslate but these Turkish towels from Amazon are great too.

Water Sandals – Traversing the landscape around the waterfalls can be tricky. We highly encourage a good pair of water shoes with traction. Dennis loves his Earth Runners and Liz recommends these Chacos.

Water – You want to stay hydrated on this trip. Your tour guide will likely have water bottles. But if you want to help the environment bring your own reusable water bottle. We recommend this Camelbak that has a lifestraw in it to help filter and remove any unwanted chemicals like chlorine, lead, and organic matter.

Sun protection – We are not big fans of sunscreen. Most are actually toxic to your body and known to cause skin cancer. It’s also bad for the environment you’re swimming in. But if you must use sunscreen we recommend this brand, which has no harmful ingredients, uses zinc to block the sun, and is environmentally safe.

If you’re okay ditching the sunscreen make sure you have a sun shirt and hat with you. We love Free Fly apparel which uses bamboo and has 30 SPF protection. It’s also a good idea to have a buff to protect your neck and face.

Dry Bag – If you’re bringing any filming equipment (like a GoPro) to capture the beauty and the fun at Tamul Waterfall, make sure you have a dry bag with you.

Change of Clothes – After the excursion, you’ll get a delicious home-cooked meal. There are bathrooms nearby for changing. I didn’t know to bring a change of clothes and desperately wished I had them. 

The best time to visit Tamul Waterfall in Huasteca Potosino

You want to plan your visit to Huasteca Potosino and Tamul Waterfall in Mexico’s dry season. November through March is considered the dry season, with the best months, for temperature and water clarity being December through February.

If you visit in the summer months you may find the turquoise blue waters of the Tampaon River brown from rainwater runoff. Summer is also much hotter there with high humidity making it a less pleasurable time to visit.

How to visit the waterfall

You must book an excursion with a tour group to visit Tamul Waterfall. We ended up booking with Huasteca Sharet, but you can also book a tour online with Viator below.

We were super pleased with our entire experience. Not only was our tour guide awesome but our tour included transportation to and from the waterfall as well as an incredible home-cooked meal at the end of a long day paddling.

The drive to the entrance for the canoes was about an hour up a very windy road that follows the Tampaon River.

When you arrive at the launch area there are bathrooms and lots of vendors selling items you may need for your trip. If you forget to bring the recommended items in this post, you can purchase a quick dry long-sleeve shirt, buffs, hats, water shoes, or dry bags here. The items were being sold from $30 to $100 pesos ($1.50 to $5.00 USD) during our visit.

Canoeing to Tamul Waterfall

Your journey to the waterfall is upriver. Be ready to paddle! It’s about a 45-minute ride with about 15 minutes of walking halfway through to get through small rapids. Thankfully, the guides carry the boats through the rapids.

The view from the paddle-up is incredible! There are mini waterfalls, lush moss, trees, and the gorgeous blue water. This alone was a magical experience. But the waterfall will blow you away.

Tamul Waterfall is 340 feet tall and nearly 300 meters long. It’s extremely powerful and an amazing sight to see. You can walk up the side of the mountain some to get closer to the waterfall, but the boats take you to the closest point you can safely be before turning around.

The waterfall’s current is very strong. Our guide swam to a rock. We, however, stayed closer to the shore in fear of being swept away by the current. There are excursions you can take that climb the cliff of the waterfall, but for this experience, you’ll have to wait to go swimming at the next stop, Cueva del Agua.

Visiting Cueva del Agua

After visiting Tamul Waterfall, you will paddle to a small cave along the river called Cueva del Agua. This spring-fed cave has crystal clear water perfect to swim in. Just be warned, all tour guides take their tours here after experiencing the waterfall and it will be packed!

When the tour was complete, our guide brought us to a home where a local woman prepared an incredible meal. We were able to change into dry clothes here and then dined al fresco in her backyard. The food was fantastic and she happily accommodated the vegetarians that were at the table.

The trip, including the drive out and back, took nearly all day. We were exhausted when we got home, but we had an absolutely incredible experience!

We are so thankful we went out of our way to experience Tamul Waterfall and hope to spend more time in the Huasteca Potosino area to explore some of the other wonderful waterfalls and fun activities of this region. If this guide was helpful for you in planning your trip to Tamul Waterfall, let me know in the comments below.